]]>Coming less than two weeks away on June 11, the FTC Online Ticket Sales Workshop – “That’s the Ticket” – will feature three panel discussions and a keynote, according to the schedule the organization released this week detailing the day’s discussions. A who’s who of industry professionals and economic experts are on the docket for the event, which kicks off with welcoming remarks from FTC Commissioner Rebecca K. Slaughter at 9:30 a.m.

The FTC online ticket sales workshop is free and open to the public, and will take place at the Constitution Center, located at 400 Seventh St. SW in Washington D.C. It will also be webcast on the FTC website and live tweeted (using #FTCticket) according to the press release announcing the schedule.

The day-long workshop will feature four panel discussions. The morning sessions will focus on ticket bots and the BOTS Act and on consumer protection issues around ticket availability. The afternoon sessions will consider the adequacy of ticket price and fee disclosures and other ticketing practices that can cause consumer confusion.

Following Slaughter’s opening remarks, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Economics Professor Eric Budish will provide a keynote address, expected to begin at or around 9:45 a.m. The first panel will then focus on Bots and the BOTS Act, with Mamie Kresses, an attorney in the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices moderating. Participants in the panel are Gary Adler of the National Association of Ticket Brokers, Rami Essaid of Distil Networks, David Marcus of Ticketmaster, Jeff Poirier of StubHub, Joe Ridout of Consumer Action, and Noah Stein of the New York Attorney General’s Office.

After a short break, the second panel, “Other Consumer Protection Issues around Ticket Availability” is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and will also be moderated by Kresses as well as Budish. Adler, Marcus, Poirier, Ridout and Stein will also sit on this second panel, joined by Russell D’Souza of SeatGeek and Bob Roux of Live Nation Entertainment.

The third panel, which is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. after a break for lunch, is titled “The Adequacy of Ticket Price and Fee Disclosures.”it will be moderated by Michael Ostheimer, Attorney in the Division of Advertising Practices of the FTC. D’Souza is the lone holdover on this panel from the morning. He will be joined by Laura Brett of the Better Business Bureau, Sarra Fisher Ellison of the Economics Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Anna Laitin of Consumer Reports, John Lawrence of StubHub, Tamara Mendelsohn of Eventbrite, and Patti-Anne Tarlton of Ticketmaster.

Wrapping up the panels on the day is a discussion titled “Consumer Confusion: What and From Whom and I Buying? – moderated by Devon W. Domond, also of the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices. Joining the discussion are TicketNetwork CEO Don Vaccaro, joh Breyault of National Consumers League, Gilbert Hoover of The Shubert Organization, Katy McCabe of Google, Michael Marion of the International Association of Venue Managers, Michael Newquist of Ultimate Fighting Championship, Carl Szabo of NetChoice, and Parul Shah of the United Kingdom’s Competition & Markets Authority. That is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start.

At 4 p.m., the FTC Online Ticket Sales Workshop will close with remarks from Mary K. Engle, Associate Director of the Division of Advertising Practices, FTC.